Guinness have setup a blog run by their marketing team.
But before you click on the link to go and have a look you better stop for a second.
If you are not in the UK you cannot view the blog (or at least they don’t want you to view it)
They’ve put up a “nice” barrier page that stops you accessing the site unless you provide your age and state that you are in England, Scotland or Wales. Supposedly they are concerned about the legal issues of making the content available.
From a marketing point of view I see a number of issues with this. Unless they are going to give me very valuable content why would I bother filling out the form? If they are forcing everyone to fill it out have they set it up so that the search engine spiders can get in directly?
The age and country check is laughable. I was blocked the first time when I told the truth, but by simply using my browser’s back button and changing my country I was able to get in.
It’s also more than a bit insulting that Irish citizens cannot view a blog about one of the quintessential Irish products. (Yes I know the company isn’t Irish anymore)
Other people have also been commenting on the new blog…
Michele Neylon :: Pensieri
Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts
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Odd. I had no problem when I put my location as Ireland when I tried it earlier in the week
OK, so I live in NI, technically the UK of course, yet the only options are england scotland and wales. I live in none of these places. Can they really be so stupid?
Don – I don’t see any option to choose Ireland.
Phil – It would seem so
Hmmm. They must have changed it since I first visited. I saw the link on Hugh’s site not long after he posted it, and there were a long list of countries in a drop down box – with England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland at the very top. I only tried the Ireland option and it worked.
At elast you can lie and get past the landingpage, I’ve encountered more serious problems…
http://www.ambrand.com/2006/02/11/the-it-crowd-and-geoip/
All very interesting . . . but it’s Friday! Nearly finished work and I’m going for a pint! (of Guinness of course).